Quality Begins at the Top

In the emerging business scenario, the emphasis is shifting from ‘price’ to ‘quality’.  This trend is visible in the more industrialized countries like Japan, America, West Germany, and the UK, among others; it is also gaining ground in other countries like Taiwan, South Korea, and Thailand.

Quality is a multi-dimensional concept.  In the broadest sense, it means ‘conformance to requirements’.  In the more specific sense it is ‘fitness for use’.  Hence the old adage that the ‘customer is king’ is brought into sharp focus.  Customer satisfaction does not involve just producing a good product, but the entire gamut of after-sales service and product delivery systems.  When Sir John Harvey Jones, the much talked about ex-chairman of ICI, wrote in his autobiography that he saw ICI developing into a service company over the next decade as opposed to just a manufacturing company, he probably had the service orientation view in mind.  This implies companywide involvement starting from the top.

Strategy flops
In order to inculcate the concept of quality, companies in India experimented with QC circles as a strategy.  But because of lack of top management involvement the strategy floundered.  What was supposed to be a companywide strategy was actually delegated to departmental shop-floors.  This mistake was critical.

Enlightened managers believe that 80 per cent of quality problems emanate from the top.  And only 20 per cent are related to the shop-floor.  Hence, at best QC circles can address only 20 per cent of the problems.  They do bring about change and are quite effective in motivating workers on the shop-floor but only if they are part of a larger plan of companywide quality management and training.  Nevertheless, when top management has initiated and continued a companywide management programme and subsequently dovetailed QC circles into it, the efficacy of the original programme has been enhanced considerably.

The Japanese undertook to revolutionize their product quality by a massive training programme for directors, managers, supervisors and technical specialists.  As this programme permeated through the company hierarchy from top to bottom, the question arose as to whether it was necessary to train the workers on how to attain and improve quality.  This was started on a voluntary basis, and has remained so because of the enthusiastic response by the workers.  Since 1962, about seven million workers have undergone this training, which includes theoretical training and live projects for control or improvement of quality.  In this way millions of projects have been completed bringing about enormous benefits to the companies.

Just as QC circles have not been very successful in many companies, there are others which have derived much benefit from them because they have gone about it the right way.  For instance, Telco, introduced the Small Groups Quality Circles in 1983, later called Small Group Activity.  But this was only after much groundwork was done.  A management training centre (MTC) was started in 1970.  Later in 1978 top managers were sent to moral re-armament (MRA) seminars on creative leadership in industry and national development.  These were followed by half day seminars in which managers and MRA-trained workers discussed how to improve the quality of work life in the company.  This then led to the formation of the small group quality circles or small group activities which are essentially QC circles.

Phased programme
The tractor division of Mahindra and Mahindra introduced QC circles in 1985.  But they went through a phased programme beginning in 1978.  The period between 1978-81 was a re-establishment phase, when greater emphasis was given to inspection, increased supervision, communication, top-management involvement in shop-floor problems, and training of workers.  In the second phase beginning 1982, the original emphasis on product quality was broadened to include quality of systems and processes.  Therefore, by 1985 the ground was well laid for the introduction of QC circles.

In today’s competitive environment, where survival for many companies has become an issue of concern, it is absolutely imperative that measurable quality goals are set.  It is evident that QC circles, while effective, have their limitations.  For one, this concept has done very little to improve market share or increase profitability.  But that is no argument for making QC circles defunct.  They have an important role to play in motivating workers, and securing their involvement to solve problems which emanate from the shop-floor.

In fact, a senior UK-based management consultant who had the opportunity of interacting with top management in Indian industry, pointed out that, India had the advantage of an infrastructure to become an industrial power by the end of the century.  What was lacking was the will of top management to make industry best-in-class.  Therefore, what is needed is the will to improve quality, starting at the top, and not merely tinkering with QC circles as we have been doing now.

Be that as it may, the real challenge for Indian companies is whether they can get 50 per cent of their customers to rate them best-in-class or aim for the international Deming Prize which is given to a company that succeeds in achieving companywide quality management.  And this can only be brought about if top management can identify customer needs, and satisfy those needs; take cognizance of existing competition and be better than the best.